On Friday, 18th, Kunos released a new update (and a few minor ones in the following hours) after skipping the update on July 4th according to the usual 2-weeks schedule. However, it was well worth the wait because this update come with some major features, a new awesome car - the legendary Classic Team Lotus Type 98T, and most importantly prepares the platform for some consistent improvements in the future, towards the 1.0 release. One more noticeable fact would also be that Kunos team is growing, and this can only mean one thing for us: more goodies .

Here is the official statement, as published by Kunos:

New content: Classic Team Lotus Type 98T
Finally this awesome car is available in the Assetto Corsa's garage: the legendary single seater with which Ayrton Senna has wrote some of the most beatiful pages in the motorsport history is waiting for you: Equipped with a small 1.5litres engine that represents the peak of the legendary turbo era, producing over 800bhp at race boost of around 3.5bar and more than 1200bhp at qualifying trim and over 5bar turbo boost! The downforce generated by the big wings and massive diffuser is even more than what modern F1 cars are capable of. Nevertheless, the extreme pitch sensitivity, stalling issues of the diffuser and unbelievably exponential power delivery of the twin turbo's, will challenge your skills not only to try and go fast with this car, but to actually keep it on track! Just a single lap will make you understand why there was just one man on the planet, capable of driving this monster close to its limits and on to pole position!

New Multiplayer
We have worked very hard to improve the multiplayer routines: we have recognized that some of the limits of the previous netcode didn't allow gamers to get the maximum satisfaction, in particular when some gamers was performing high ping values. We are glad to announce that the netcode of the new version doesn't represent an improvement of the previous one, but it has been rewrote from scratch. The results of our private betatesting gave us an excellent feedback, and we are confident you will get a very improved multiplayer experience. Please notice that this new version, Assetto Corsa requires increased server bandwidth. Professional dedicated servers shouldn't have any problems at all, but users that wish to host session on their local home connection, should start with a very low client number and slowly raise the number until they find the limits of their connection.
The following bandwidth requirements are a conservative guideline, your results may vary:
Clients = Kilobytes /sec upstream
5 = 23KB/s
8 = 66KB/s
10 = 106KB/s
15 = 247KB/s
20 = 448KB/s
25 = 708KB/s
30 = 1026KB/s

New Multiplayer features
New multiplayer mode without booking request. The number of servers and users wishing to easily join pickup servers has caught us by surprise. We never imagined such a big success of casual multiplayer sessions with Assetto Corsa. As such, it was evident that the actual booking system, specifically thought for leagues and organized racing, was not doing a good job. We’re introducing a new “pickup” multiplayer mode without booking sessions.
The new “pickup” system, permits a server to be configured without booking sessions. An entry list must be configured properly, with only the cars that will be present in the server.
Clients can filter from the UI and search just for non booking servers. Then simply select a car and join the server at whatever session (practice, qualifying or race), at any time as many times as they wish.
At the current state the “pickup” system does not permit a specific skin selection from the client and we’re pretty sure that needs more testing in order to iron out possible bugs. Please help us by pointing out bugs at our official support forums. We are looking to have multiple hotfixes during the following week, in order to deliver a stable version for August vacations.

Artificial Intelligence
Working on the Lotus Type 98T, we have had also the chance to analyze some issues related to the stability of some of the most performing cars that feature a active aero system: the Lotus Type 98T produces very high drag and downforce values, that change costantly and dynamically with pitch, speed and throttle position. All of that, together with the incredible power and speed that this car is capable of, resulted in multiple critical situations for our AI. The new AI improvements, not only manages to mantain the Lotus 98T on track, but also improve the AI behaviour of the other cars. More improvements are on the way, following optimizations of the new code.

Graphics engine
As anticipated some weeks ago, this build performs some new graphics libraries: you will notice some improved post-processing effects, including DOF (depth of field), bloom, tone mapping, FXAA and more. There are some additional features included in the graphics option menu that will allow users to choose different scenarios. This version does not include most of the effects that will be included in future and that will represent a huge step ahead: before to introduce other features, we want to be sure about stability and performance of this upgrade.

Next updates
As always, we'll monitor all the forum activities in order to find and resolve eventual issues and bugs that might show up, due to the numerous new features included in this update. We will provide if needed, multiple hotfixes and feature updates in the following days. The next main build is expected to be released on Friday, 29th of August

FMOD sound engine
The implementation of FMOD sound engine is going well: as soon as we will be able to provide a comparison video between the current version and the new build featuring FMOD, we'll show you the benefits of this upgrade: this step represents a huge challenge, because it requires a total conversion of old samples and the creation of new ones. Also, new effects will be included in order to create an immersive sound environment that can guarantee an immersive experience. We believe that the final result is well worth the investment requested.

Spa Francorchamps Circuit
The modeling of Spa-Francorchamps has been almost completed: as you might know, this track will be included in the 1.0 version of Assetto Corsa (and this might suggest you that 1.0 version isn't too far). During this summer we will release some videos and pictures that will give you an idea of what to expect from this awesome and legendary circuit.

Future upgrades, contents and partnerships
Considering the time involved to schedule and manage the production of new contents, we are working in advance to provide you tons of new contents even after 1.0 release, with new car brands licensed and models to be unveiled soon. We recognize that trying to stay focused on the development of the main build and on some new activities, we haven't shared enough work in progress pics and videos for a while: don't worry, we'll surprise you again.

KUNOS Simulazioni is expanding
The Early Access program has been very successful, exceeding our expectations, and it's about to end. Thanks to this results, KUNOS Simulazioni has welcomed some additional programmers and graphics modellers that are already involved in current and future productions, thanks to their experience matured working on AAA games. We are grateful of the amazing response of the community towards Assetto Corsa and we try our best to give you the best racing game we are able to make. Thank you very much for your incredible support: see you on track!

0.21.4
- Improved communication with X360 GamePad
- Added password support for pickup servers
- Improved Server Configurator
- Server will now stop with an error if a booking session is added in pickup mode
- Server will now stop with an error if cars in the entry list do not match the legal car entries in the server_cfg
- Server will now stop with an error if multiple tracks are selected in pickup mode (unsupported feature)
- Server will not correctly report to race lobby about the available seats in pickup mode

0.21.6
- New Race Control
- Server is now in control of fuel rate
- Server is now in control of tyre rate
- Server is now in control of damage level
- AI does not flatshift cars with no autocutoff anymore
- Added "transfer" grip from session to session
- AI cars now try to park on the side if they have a broken engine

0.21.5
- Launcher: control configuration now includes assignment option for the newly implemented handbrake as axis (note: mutually exclusive with the button assignment)